German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk attend the presentation of the book “The Chancellor and Her World” in Berlin, April 22, 2013.

They call each other “dear.” They have family roots in the same Baltic Sea-coast city and their warm relationship is helping strengthen ties between two of Europe’s formerly bitter enemies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Polish counterpart, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, have bonded over their shared heritage. It’s a relationship that some have suggested could make Poland the partner for Germany to turn to if France or Britain, it’s more usual European allies, refuse to give backing to Berlin’s ideas.

Poland is one of Germany’s largest trading partners and is well integrated into its industrial fabric. Their business cultures are steadily converging, said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who in 2011 urged Germany to take a stronger leadership role in Europe and save the euro.

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Poland’s voting weight on the European Union’s key governing bodies will be almost on a par with France until 2017, when new voting rules come into effect. Meanwhile its political clout is increasing in parallel with its economic growth. After 2017, when voting will reflect the population weight of EU countries, Poland will remain one of the top six decision makers in the 27-nation union.

On the down side, Berlin is the EU’s biggest contributor of cash for poorer regions and Warsaw its largest recipient, which put the two countries at odds during last year’s EU budget negotiations. And despite all the friendliness, Poland watched powerlessly as Ms. Merkel and then-president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, inaugurated the Nord Stream gas pipeline that runs across the Baltic Sea and circumvents Polish territory.

Personal ties, however, between German and Polish leaders have rarely been as cordial as they are now between Ms. Merkel and Mr. Tusk. Their mothers were both born in Gdansk, known as Danzig before 1945. A biography of the German chancellor published this month gave details of her Polish ancestry and distant relatives.

At Monday’s book launch Mr. Tusk lauded Ms. Merkel. “At this time of crisis, Europe’s problems are with you in safe hands,” he was quoted as saying on the German government’s website.

The two speak together in German and chatted animatedly as their ministers signed intergovernmental agreements in Berlin last November. In a news conference that followed, Mr. Tusk chose not to listen to the interpreter, nodding approvingly as Ms. Merkel praised mutual cooperation. In her opening remarks she welcomed “dear Donald” as her guest.

Still, the mutual admiration of the two leaders may not extend to the people of both countries.

Mr. Tusk’s 2005 presidential bid was derailed by the revelation that his grandfather was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, the Nazi German armed forces.

Nazi Germany took a key step along the road to World War II by attacking a Polish military outpost in Danzig. It later razed Warsaw and put millions of Poland’s Jewish and Catholic citizens in concentration camps.

Ms. Merkel may also find that her closer relationship with Mr. Tusk could be a double-edged sword. Her biography, called The Chancellor and Her World, by Stefan Kornelius, describes how her parental grandfather changed the family name from the Polish surname Kazmierczak.

Her grandfather was born in Poznan, present-day Poland, and had a wife with a Polish-sounding surname. The family moved to Berlin when borders shifted and called themselves Kasner, the chancellor’s surname at birth.

“My grandfather didn’t help me in the presidential election a few years ago. I hope that yours won’t be an obstacle in your election in 2013,” Mr. Tusk warned Ms. Merkel on Monday, according to Polish news reports. The German chancellor is expected to win a third term in September.

Ms. Merkel has been economical with the details of her Polish ancestry. For generations, Poland has been among Germany’s least popular neighbors and its relative poverty produced an expression meaning “Polish economy” a German idiom for utter chaos and mismanagement.

The German chancellor doesn’t speak Polish and Mr. Tusk said he taught her how to pronounce her family’s old name, living up to the Polish language’s reputation for being a tongue-twister.

Mr. Tusk, on the other hand, has demonstrated advanced phonetic skills in German. In an audio recording of a speech rehearsal that made headlines in 2011, Mr. Tusk can be heard joking with his advisers. At some point he said “Guten Tag,” German for “good day.” In the three syllables he produced an alveolar flap for “t” and a syllabic “n,” neither of which are in the Polish system. At the height of the parliamentary election that year, Mr. Tusk’s campaign at the time called the leak “unpleasant.”

Comments (3 of 3)

no, he actually said "abnormal". Maybe he meant purple with polka dots but he said abnormal. I take him at his word.

1:53 am April 25, 2013

Jan wrote:

As long as I remember as a Poland watcher, he meant extraordinary rather than abnormal, just as Robert Lewandowski is extraordinary today.

1:03 am April 25, 2013

Poles wrote:

How many Poles speak German? How many Germans speak Polish? This is a lopsided relationship that will bring nothing good to Poland. Tusk once said that being Polish is "abnormal" - perhaps he was right - no normal nation would have elected a person who had said such a thing as prime minister.

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